Operating mechanism for a railroad car door



1968 T. MADLAND ET AL 3,417,515

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR A RAILROAD CAR DOOR Filed Sept. 27; 1966 sSheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS. THORVALD MADLAND 8| CORNELIE? BRUCE KENNEDY 4swam/14M ATTORNEYSv FIGI OPERATING MECHANISM FOR A RAILROAD CAR DOORFiled Sept. 27. 1966 Dec. 24, 1968 MADLAND ET AL 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.2

I NVENTORS.

THORVALD MADLAND & coRNEulg; BRUCE KENNEDY 4m 5 MM ATTORNEYS UnitedStates Patent 3,417,515 OPERATING MECHANISM FOR A RAILROAD CAR DOORThorvald Madland, Arlington Heights, 111., and Cornelius Bruce Kennedy,Youngstown, Ohio, assignors to The Youngstown Steel Door Company,Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Sept. 27, 1966, Ser. No.582,430 Claims. (Cl. 49-220) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Disclosed is aleverless operating mechanism for a railway car door of the type adaptedto be received in an opening in the side wall of a railway car. The doorhas vertically extending pipes rotatably supported on the door withcrank means on either end of the pipes attached to engage support meanson the car to support the door for lateral movement into and out of thedoor opening. Locking means are providing on the door for securing it inthe door opening as well as a manual operating means for actuating thepipes and the locking means. The operating means includes a sleeve meanssupported on the door for movement transverse to the plane of the door.The sleeve means has an internally threaded cylinder received within itand secured to the door. A shaft is threaded in the cylinder and has ahandle mounted thereon for rotation therewith. A connection between thehandle and the sleeve means permits relative rotational movement betweenthe handle and the sleeve means and limits relative axial movementtherebetween so that they move together transverse to the plane of thedoor. The sleeve means has a plurality of radially extending arms whichare connected to a plurality of levers pivotally supported on the door.The adjacent arms and levers have a cam surface formed on one of themand a cam surface follower on the other of them so that movement of thesleeve means causes a timed pivoting movement of the levers. Some of thelevers are interconnected by means of linkages to the pipes and othersof the levers are connected with the locking means whereby transversemovement of the sleeve imparts movement to said pipes and said lockingmeans.

This invention relates to an operating mechanism for railway car doorsand more particularly to a leverless operating mechanism which isself-locking and which includes an improved mechanism for controllingthe sequential operation of the locking bolts and the door.

In a customary plug door, the door is supported on the side of therailway car by pipes and cranks which permit lateral movement of thedoor into and out of the door opening. The pipes and crankstraditionally have been operated by manual levers connected to the pipeson the exterior surface of the door. The side locking bolts for the doorordinarily have been operated -by a separate rotatable handle. When thelevers are actuated in a direction toward the plane of the door, thedoor is moved laterally into the door opening and the gasket around theperiphery of the door is compressed to seal the door opening. When thelevers are released and rotated in the direction away from the plane ofthe door, the pipes and cranks are rotated to withdraw the doorlaterally from the door opening so that the door may freely slide alongthe outside of the railway car.

The use of plug doors in railway cars transporting grain or similarlading has given rise to certain problems, particularly with respect tothe use of levers as the operating mechanism. For example, when a plugdoor employing levers to operate the door is used in a car fortransporting grain, it has been found that when the car is spotted'ice - for unloading, there frequently is insuflicient space availableto rotate the levers to withdraw the plug door from the door opening.The result has been that the car must be moved from the center of thegrain pit to a point where additional space is available to rotate thelevers and then respotted over the grain pit. Moreover, once the leversare actuated, the contents of the car exert a force against the face ofthe door which gives rise to the possibility of a lever flying open andattendant harm to the operator.

The present invention solves the problems of the prior art by providinga leveless operating mechanism for operating both the locking bolts andthe pipes of a plug door whereby the lateral withdrawal of the door isat all times under the control of the operator. The present mechanismalso provides for the proper timing between the locking mechanisms onthe door and the mechanism for withdrawing the door from the dooropening. That is, the present invention has devised a mechanism whichprovides for the unlocking and withdrawal of the door from its openingand its reinsertion and locking by means of cam surfaces, cam slots andbell cranks which act as timing means to assure the proper operation ofthe door.

The present invention contemplates a railway car door adapted to bereceived in an opening in the side Wall of a railway car. It hasvertically extending pipes rotatably supported on the door and crankmeans on either end of each of the pipes adapted to support the door forlateral movement into and out of the opening in the railway car. Supportmeans on the car cooperate with the crank means and operating meanscarried by the door are operable to rotate the pipes and the crankmeans. The operating means include a hollow internally threaded membersecured on the door with the longitudinal axis of the member beingtransverse to the plane of the door. A shaft extends into and is inthreaded engagement with the internally threaded member. A handle issecured to the shaft and a yoke having one of its ends attached to thehandle is adapted to slide over the hollow internally threaded member.The yoke has radially extending arms with cam surfaces formed thereonadapted to cooperate with linkage means to rotate the pipes which impartlateral movement to the railway car 'door. The yoke also includes camsurfaces which cooperate with linkage means to actuate the side lockingbolts in the proper sequence.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the plug door in closed position in arailway car.

FIG. 2 is a view taken along section 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view taken along section 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a section taken along section 44 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a section taken along section 55 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 illustrates an alternate design of the mechanism for rotating thepipes.

Illustrated in FIG. 1 is a side wall 10 of a conventional railway carhaving a door opening 11 formed therein. A laterally movable plug door12 is adapted to be received in the door opening 11. The door 12 is alsoadapted to move along the side 10 of the railway car.

A track 13 supports the door 12 for its movement along the railway carside 10. Rollers 14 which are maintained in brackets 15 move on thetrack 13. The brackets 15 have protruding pins 16 which are rotatablymounted in cranks 17 secured to one end of pipes 18. The other end ofthe pipes 18 have cranks 27 which support rollers received behind a topretainer 30.

The cranks 17 and 27 are mounted perpendicular to the plane of the doorwhen it is closed. This position of the cranks 17 results in a minimumamount of initial transverse movement of the door 12 relative to the car10.

The pipes 18 are secured to the door 12 by brackets 20 which allow thepipes 18 to rotate relative to the door.

o The rotation of the cranks 18 are controlled by the connecting rods32. The rods 32 are connected to the pipes 18 by arms 33 and areoperated by means 34 which will be more fully described with referenceto FIG. 4.

Side locking bolts 36 are provided to lock the door 12 by sliding intokeeper recesses 42 in the door opening 11. The bottom locking bolt 40has the same function. The locking bolts 36 and 40 are adapted to slidealong the plane of the door 12 and enter the keeper recesses when thedoor is in a locked position. The bottom locking bolt 40 is connecteddirectly to a central operating mechanism 48, whereas the side lockingbolts 36 are connected with the operating mechanism 48 by means of bellcranks 50 and 51 pivoted n the door 12. The bell cranks 51 are connectedto an operating bar 53 which is directly operated by the operating means48.

FIG. 2 is a sectional taken along 2-2 of FIG. 1. It illustrates across-sectional view of that portion of mechanism 48 which controls thelocking bolts 36 and 40. The

bottom locking bolt 40 is pivotably secured to a pin 56.

A second pin 57 on the bracket 55 acts as a pivot means for a camfollower 58 which has two legs 59 and 60 rigidly secured at an angle toeach other. The leg 59 supports a cam roller 59a.

The roller 59a: of the cam follower 58 engages a cam surface 63 on ayoke 61 which may move in a direction transverse to the door 12. The camfollower 58 follows the cam surface 63 during its movement. The yoke 61comprising a sleeve 67 and radially extending arms 62 connected to ahandle 65 by interlocking flanges 66 whereby the handle 65 may rotaterelative to sleeve 67. An externally threaded shaft 69 is also securedto the handle 65.

A hollow internally threaded member 72 is secured to the door 12 and hasits longitudinal axis transverse to the plane of the door 12. Itcooperates with the threaded shaft 69 to actuate the door 12.

As the handle 65 is rotated counterclockwise (as shown by the dottedportions of FIG. 2) the threaded shaft 69 moves away from the door 12.As it moves, the yoke 61 and its cam surfaces 63 actuate the camfollower 58 which pivots about the pin 57 thus moving the bottom lockbolt in an upward direction. The cam surface, cam follower and bar abovethe threaded shaft 69 act in exactly the same manner as that justdescribed.

The shape of the cam surfaces 63 is significant since it regulates thetime at which the locking bolts release. This timing must provide forthe locking bolts 36 and 40 to clear the keeper recesses 42 before thewithdrawal of the door 12 from the opening.

The shape of the cam surface 63 is an upwardly opening recess having atransverse flat surface 64 at one side of the recess and an upstandingleg 68 at the other side. The cam recess is upwardly opening with itsmajor axis parallel to the door 12 and its closed end in proximity tothe sleeve 67. The open end of the oval forms two legs 62a and 62b ofdifferent heights which have their inner surfaces extending parallel tothe handle 65 and away from the sleeve 67. The legs 62a and 62b form amouth and slot to receive the cam roller 59a.

The particular shape of the cam surface 63 allows the cam roller 59a toquickly retract locking bolts 36, 40 in order to release the lockingbolts before any significant movement of the door 12.

The operation of the side locking bolts 36 is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and5. The mechanism for operating the upper side locking bolts comprisesbell cranks 51 which cooperate with operating bar 53 in a known mannerto retract the bolts. The bell cranks cooperate in a similar fashionwith a slot 74 in locking bolt 40 to retract the lower side lockingbolts 36.

FIG. 4 is a sectional taken along section 4-4 of FIG. 1 and indicates asectional view of the mechanism for rotating the pipes 18. The yoke 61has radially extending arms 80 in which there are formed cam recesses 81adapted to receive cam rollers 93. The cam rollers 93 are carried by onearm of bell cranks 95. Each bell crank 95 is pivoted about pins 96 onbracket 97. The other arms 98 are connected by pins 99 to connectingrods 32.

The cam recesses 81 extend generally transverse to the sleeve 67 Theopen end of each recess includes opposed surfaces 82 and 83 at theterminal portions of the generally parallel sides of the recess 81. Thesurface 82 is radially spaced at a greater distance from the sleeve 67than the surface BS with the surface 83 forming a greater angle with thesides of the recess 81 than the surface 82.

In operation, only the handle 65 need be rotated to open the door 12. Asit is rotated, the shaft 69 is threaded away from the door causing thesleeve 67 with its radially extending arms 62 and to move away from thedoor 12 in a transverse direction. As the arms 62 move outwardly, thecam rollers 59a are immediately displaced from the recess 63 onto theflat surface 64 thereby unlocking bolts 36 and 40.

Simultaneous with the displacement of the cam rollers 59a the arms 80are moving away from the door. In the closed position of the door, asshown in FIG. 4, the cam rollers 93 are resting on the surfaces 83 ofthe arms 80. Initial movement of the arms 80 away from the door causes aseparation of the roller 93 from the cam surface 83; however, nopivoting movement is imparted to the bell crank during the initialmovement of the arms 80 since the surface 82 on the arm 80 is spacedfrom the roller 93. The spacing of the surface 82 from the roller 93constitutes in effect a lost motion device so that as the arm 80 isprogressing to a position of engagement between the surface 82 androller 93, the bolts 36 and 40 are being retracted from the keeperrecesses thereby freeing the door for lateral withdrawal from the dooropening. As the handle 65 is further rotated, the surface 82 on the arm80 will engage the roller 93 and cause pivoting of the bell cranks 95 todisplace the rods 32 and thereby rotate the pipes 18 causing the lateralwithdrawal of the door. It should be noted in this regard that, sincethe cranks 17 and 27 are substantially perpendicular to the plane of thedoor when the door is in the closed position, only a minimum amount oflateral movement of the door will occur during the initial rotation ofthe pipes, thereby assuring that the locking bolts will be fullyretracted before any substantial lateral movement of the door.

An alternate embodiment of the yoke is illustrated in FIG. 6 in whichthe arms 80 are replaced by arms 100 which carry, at their radiallyouter extremity, pins 101. Each pin is adapted to be received in anarcuate slot 102 formed in one arm 103 of a modified bell crank lever104. The other arm of the bell crank 104 is connected to the connectingrod 32 in a manner similar to the bell crank 95 of the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 4. The arcuate configuration of the slot 102 is suchthat a portion of the slot extends substantially parallel to thelongitudinal axis of the sleeve 67 which carries the arm 100 and the pin101. The remainder of the slot gradually curves away from the sleeves67. With this configuration of the slot, initial movement of the sleeve67 and the arm 100 away from the door 12 causes the pin 101 to traversethe longitudinal portion of the slot 102. In this region of the slot102, virtually no movement is imparted to the bell crank 104 so that thepipes 18 remain inactive during the initial withdrawal of the bolts 36and 40 from their respective keepers. As the pins 101 engage theremaining portion of the slots 102, the bell cranks are pivoted androtation is imparted to pipes 18.

We claim:

1. A railway car door adapted to be received in an opening in the sidewall of a railway car comprising:

vertically extending pipes rotatably supported on said door;

crank means on either end of said pipes adapted to engage support meanson the car to support said door for lateral movement into and out of theopening in the car;

locking means on the door for securing the door in the door opening;

manual operating means on said door for actuating said pipes and saidlocking means;

said operating means including a sleeve means supported on said door formovement transverse to the plane of the door;

an internally threaded sleeve means secured to said door; a shaftthreaded in said sleeve means; a handle mounted on said shaft forrotation therewith; means rotatably interconnecting said handle withsaid sleeve means to permit relative rotational movement and limitrelative axial movement therebetween;

means interconnecting said sleeve means with said pipes and said lockingmeans whereby transverse movement of said sleeve means impartscontrolled sequential movement to said pipes and said locking meansthroughout the entire opening and closing movement of the door.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein said interconnecting means andsaid sleeve means include mechanical timing means, said timing meansincluding links with slots which are operative to delay actuation ofsaid pipes so that said locking means are actuated before said pipesduring the door opening operation.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said sleeve means further includesa plurality of spaced, radially extending arms;

said interconnecting means including a plurality of levers pivotallysupported on said door adjacent each of said arms;

each of said adjacent arms and levers having a cam surface formed on oneof them and cam following means on the other of them adapted to engagesaid cam surface whereby movement of said sleeve means causes pivotingmovement of said levers;

said interconnecting means further including linkage meansinterconnecting certain of said levers with said pipes and the other ofsaid levers with said locking means.

4. The combination of claim 3 wherein said carn surfaces and camfollowing means on said levers and adjacent arms connected to said pipeshave engaging surface portions which when in motion relative to eachother are ineffective to cause movement of said pipes during apredetermined range of movement of said sleeve means.

5. The combination of claim 3 wherein said cam surfaces are formed onsaid arms and said cam follower means are on said levers;

each of said cam surfaces on said arms including a recess adapted toreceive the adjacent cam follower means in one position of said member;

each of said cam surfaces further including surfaces adjacent saidrecesses adapted to engage said cam follower means in other positions ofsaid member.

6. The combination of claim 1 wherein said sleeve means includes aradially outwardly opening recess formed therein;

lever means pivotally supported on said door adjacent said recess;

a portion of said lever means being adapted to be received in saidrecess in one position of said sleeve means; and

linkage means interconnecting said lever means with said locking means.

7. The combination of claim 1 wherein said sleeve means includes aradially outwardly opening recess formed therein;

lever means pivotally supported on said door and having a portionadapted to be received in said recess in one position of said sleevemeans;

the radially outer end of said recess including a tapered cam surfaceadapted to engage said portion of said lever means in another positionof said sleeve means; and

linkage means interconnecting said lever means with said pipes.

8. The combination of claim 1 wherein said sleeve means comprises:

a sleeve having bifurcated arms extending radially outwardly on opposedsides thereof;

lever means pivotally supported on said door and having a portionthereof adapted to be received in the recess defined by the bifurcationin said arms;

one side wall of said recess terminating in a radially outwardly taperedcam surface;

the other side wall of said recess extending radially outwardly beyondsaid tapered cam surface and terminating in a portion extending inwardlyof said recess and spaced from said cam surface whereby said portion ofsaid lever means may engage said cam surface while being spaced fromsaid other side wall of said recess.

9. The combination of claim 1 wherein said means interconnected witheach of said pipes includes a lever pivotally supported on said dooradjacent said sleeve means;

each of said levers including a cam slot formed therein;

cam follower means on said sleeve means received in said slots;

a portion of each of said slots extending substantially transverse tothe plane of said door and substantially parallel to the direction ofmovement of said sleeve means.

10. The combination of claim 8 wherein said sleeve further includesadditional arms extending radially thereof;

said means interconnecting said locking means with said sleeve includinglevers pivoted on said door adjacent said additional arms;

cam surfaces formed on said additional arms;

a portion of said last mentioned levers being in engagement with saidcam surfaces on said additional arms.

KENNETH DOWNEY, Primary Examiner.

